Customer Experience and Interactions

As part of our Regulatory Proposal 'Reset' Engagement for 2025-2030, we are holding a series of 'Focussed Conversations' workshops with our stakeholders and customers to engage deeply on priority topics and better understand their current needs and future priorities for electricity.

The Customer Experience and Interactions Focussed Conversation follows from our Broad and Diverse Engagement Workshops across the state, helping us narrow down ways to support our customers to have an improved and optimised experience when they interact with us.

Click here to read the final outputs and recommendations to the People's Panel for this topic.

Please note: Our expenditure, revenue and price forecasts will continue to be refined as we go through the stages of our consumer engagement process and also incorporate the latest economic conditions. Therefore, the forecasts presented in the Focussed Conversations may vary from those that will be taken to our People's Panel in February 2023.

Workshop 1 - Overview

Who did we engage?

The first workshop on this topic was held online on Tuesday, 23 August and was attended by 21 stakeholders representing a range of businesses, key industry representatives, governmental organisations and advocates along with SA Power Networks staff members.

What did we engage on?

Participants were asked to consider several questions relating to:

• What should SA Power Networks provide to help support customer experience?
• How important is it that we invest in our services to support changing customer needs?
• What are the key topics for detailed discussion in subsequent workshops?
• What kind of information will we need to bring to subsequent workshops to explore these key issues in more detail and provide advice on options?
• Is there anything missing that we should be thinking about for 2025-30 in this area?

What did we learn?

Discussions were held around the topics of defining reliability, what impacts reliability on the network and what impacts the safety of the network. A detailed summary of this topic will be made available once all the workshops have concluded.

Workshop documents

Participants attending the workshop were provided with a Pre-read participant pack, providing them with a background to the SA Power Networks' Reset 2025-30 and the Customer Experience and Interactions Focussed conversation. Click here to access the participant pre-read pack.

Click here to access a copy of the presentation from the workshop. Click here to read the key notes and discussions from our first workshop

Click here to view the recording of our first workshop on this topic.

Workshop 2 - Customer Service Measures and Incentives

Who did we engage?

The workshop on this topic was held on Wednesday, 7 September and was attended by 17 external stakeholders representing a range of businesses, local council and community organisations, government representatives and advocates along with SA Power Networks staff members.

What did we engage on?

Workshop participants were asked to consider a few scenarios regarding the ESCoSA measure such as:

• If the measure were correct

• Are there any gaps or omissions?

• Do you think the current level of performance is satisfactory?

• What would you like ESCoSA to consider when setting targets (eg. historic performance, industry benchmark)?

Workshop participants were asked to consider the following questions regarding the proposed AER measures such as:

• Customer satisfaction

• Customer satisfaction overall plus four specific areas like planned outages, unplanned outages, new connections, general enquiries

• Are there any gaps or omissions?

• What would you like the AER to consider when setting targets

Workshop documents

Participants attending the workshop were provided with a Pre-read participant pack, providing them with a background to the SA Power Networks' Reset 2025-30; Customer experience and interactions focussed conversation. Click here to access the participant pre-read pack.

Click here to view a copy of the presentation from our workshop.

Click here to read our session notes from this workshop.

Click here to watch a video recording of our workshop.

Workshop 2B - Customer Service Measures and Incentives

Following the earlier Focussed Conversation on 7 September, we held a secondary session with our Community Advisory Board (CAB) on 31 October to further discuss data measures for both Customer Service Measures (Essential Services Commission of South Australia) and Customer Service Incentives (Australian Energy Regulator). The purpose of the discussion was to reach agreement on the measures and their targets.

CAB members shared their feedback on the proposed measures and targets at the meeting, with agreement that SA Power Networks would undertake further analysis on options and return to the CAB in January 2023 for further discussion.

Click here to access the presentation notes from the session.

Workshop 3 - Energy Advisory

Who did we engage?

The workshop on this topic was held on Tuesday, 13 September and was attended by 13 external stakeholders representing a range of businesses, local council and community organisations, government representatives and advocates along with SA Power Networks staff members.

What did we engage on?

This session was the third of five in the Customer Experience and Interactions segment and followed on from our Broad and Diverse Engagement workshop, where participants told us that they wanted help navigating the electricity market. The aim of this session was to discuss the Energy Advisory concept and three service options with customers, community representatives and stakeholders to continue to develop our thinking on potential options, areas of focus and levels of service an Energy Advisory Service could deliver.

Participants were provided with a background on why we are proposing an Energy Advisory Service and were then taken through the potential initiatives for investment including current and proposed service offerings and potential costs.

Workshop documents

Participants attending the workshop were provided with a Pre-read participant pack, providing them with a background to the SA Power Networks' Reset 2025-30; Customer experience and interactions focussed conversation. Click here to access the participant pre-read pack.

Click here to view a copy of the presentation from our workshop.

Click here to watch a video recording of our workshop.

Click here to read the session notes from this workshop.

Workshop 4 - Personalised and on-demand services

Who did we engage?

The workshop on this topic was held on Tuesday, 27 September and was attended by 17 external stakeholders representing a range of businesses, local council and community organisations, government representatives and advocates along with SA Power Networks staff members.

What did we engage on?

This workshop outlined the opportunities for SA Power Networks to improve customer service provisioned through online and traditional contact centre channels. Participants attending this Focussed Conversation were asked to consider the following questions as we worked through the potential initiatives:

• Which digital services are important to you as a customer?
• Are there digital services that are less important to you?
• In which scenario should SA Power Networks invest in the 2025-30 regulatory period?
• Do we have the right people in the room to provide advice?
• Has the right information been provided to make the decisions?

Workshop documents

Participants attending the workshop were provided with a Pre-read participant pack, providing them with a background to the SA Power Networks' Reset 2025-30; Customer experience and interactions focussed conversation. Click here to access the participant pre-read pack.

Click here to view the presentation slide deck and session notes from this workshop.

Click here to watch a video recording of the session here.

Workshop 5 - Connections Policy, Procedures and Charges

Who did we engage?

The Connections, Policy and Procedures Focussed conversation (the fifth topic in the Customer Experience & Interactions engagement stream) was held on Tuesday, 4 October and attended by seven representatives from business, solar and electrical industry, State Government and SA Power Networks' customer representative groups.

What did we engage on?

This workshop Focussed on proposed changes to the Connections Policy, Procedures and Charges for the 2025-30 regulatory period, and other initiatives relating to connections services including implications of the Electric Vehicle (EV) transition and enhanced online services.

Workshop documents

Participants attending the workshop were provided with a Pre-read participant pack, providing them with a background to the SA Power Networks' Reset 2025-30; Customer experience and interactions Focussed conversation. Click here to access the participant pre-read pack.

Click here to view the workshop presentation for this session.

Click here to view the video recording of this workshop.

Workshop 6 - Engagement stream close-out

Who did we engage?

Nine customers, business, industry and regulator representatives attended our final close-out session for the Customer Experience and Interactions engagement stream on Monday, 14 November.

What did we engage on?

This final workshop was held online for stakeholders and customer representatives who have participated in any of the four sub-topic engagements from August-October and presented a summary of the outcomes of each of the four focussed conversations. It was a final chance for participants to ask questions and provide feedback before the topic report, with recommendations, is finalised for the deliberative People's Panel.

Workshop documents

Click here to read the workshop presentation and notes from the close-out session.

Click here to view the video recording of our engagement stream close-out session for this topic.